September 2013 – Page 3 – Liberty Blitzkrieg

Obama Waives Ban on Arming Terrorists to Aid Syrian Rebels

September 17, 2013 by Michael Krieger

When I first highlighted the fact that the rebels in Syria had large al-Qaeda elements to it back in December of last year, most people thought it was too incredible to believe. Fast forward to today, and not only is this admitted fact, but we have only solidified our alliance with the rebels over the past nine months. We are now allied with forces that are our purported number one enemy, the threat of which has been used to justify the destruction of civil liberties in this country. Mind-boggling.

Our corrupt, crony leaders are now in such a desperate panic to establish regime change in Syria that we are waiving bans on arming terrorist groups, so that we can arm terrorist groups. The Washington Examiner reports that:

President Obama waived a provision of federal law designed to prevent the supply of arms to terrorist groups to clear the way for the U.S. to provide military assistance to “vetted” opposition groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

The president, citing his authority under the Arms Export Control Act, announced today that he would “waive the prohibitions in sections 40 and 40A of the AECA related to such a transaction.”

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Land of the Free: American Police Make an Arrest Every 2 Seconds in 2012

September 17, 2013 by Michael Krieger

The FBI has just released its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data for 2012, which complies arrest data for the whole of the USA. While the numbers have not changed much from the year before, the absolute numbers are stunning and I doubt most Americans are aware of how elevated and skewed they actually are. The most … Read more

Meet America’s Growing “Lower Class”

September 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

The article below from the LA Times is both extremely interesting as well as depressing from a cultural standpoint. For four decades now, the General Social Survey has asked Americans how they identify themselves from a class perspective. While it was always quite common for less fortunate folks to identify themselves as “working class,” there has always been a reluctance to identify as “lower class.” Until last year that is, when a record amount of Americans identified as such.

I believe the reason for the change has to do with how the less fortunate view their future opportunities for upward mobility, and the idea that they are stuck in their position for good. This is very bad and it is a direct result of millions of Americans seeing the oligarchs bail themselves out while leaving the rest of society to rot. It’s also why there will be no sustainable recovery until the crony “elites” in power are removed from their positions of influence and the rule of law is restored. From the LA Times:

Roquemore is among the small but surging share of Americans who identify themselves as “lower class.” Last year, a record 8.4% of Americans put themselves in that category — more than at any other time in the four decades that the question has been asked on the General Social Survey, a project of the independent research organization Norc at the University of Chicago.

Unemployment surged during the downturn. Millions of homes were repossessed in the years since, and millions more people slipped into poverty. And years after the recession ended, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported record shares of households were still struggling, at times, to put adequate food on the table.

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Watch David Gregory Scramble to Avoid Answering Hard Questions on Banker Bailouts and Bonuses

September 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Meet the Press host David Gregory is one of the most shameless and consistent media shills operating in America today. Rather than use his platform as host of a popular Sunday morning political show to examine the root problems in America, he uses it to provide public relations for the criminal oligarch class and to … Read more

Meet BlueJay the “Law Enforcement Twitter Crime Scanner”

September 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Consider BlueJay, the “Law Enforcement Twitter Crime Scanner,” which provides real-time, geo-fenced access to every single public tweet so that local police can keep tabs on #gunfire, #meth, and #protest (yes, those are real examples) in their communities. BlueJay is the product of BrightPlanet, whose tagline is “Deep Web Intelligence” and whose board is populated with people like Admiral John Poindexter of Total Information Awareness infamy.

– From an excellent ArsTechnica article published yesterday

This past weekend, I highlighted the trend of the rapidly growing commercial spy industry and focused on a shadowy Italian company called Hacking Team. Today I have come across a different monitoring program called BlueJay, which is the product of a company called Bright Planet. Amongst other things, Bright Planet boasts that:

BlueJay captures tweets from the entire Twitter firehose unlike all other products on the market.
BlueJay is invisible and covert
BlueJay captures geographically tagged tweets.

Here’s how it works.

Bitpay Surpasses 10,000 Bitcoin Merchants, Up a Staggering 10x Year-over-Year

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Bitpay is the premier Bitcoin payment processing company and they have experienced staggering growth over the past year. This morning the company issued a press release announcing the fact it had signed up its 10,000th merchant, an increase of 10x from the number about a year ago when the company first crossed the 1,000 threshold. I highlighted the incredible growth of Bitpay back in March of this year, when it first hit 4,000 merchants and was adding 1,000 a month, a run rate that has incredibly enough continued.

I also had the pleasure of hearing Bitpay CEO, Anthony Gallippi, speak at the Inside Bitcoins Conference a little over a month ago in NYC. To read my summary of this excellent conference click here. Bitcoin has excited me so much in 2013 that I created my own t-shirts, available only for bitcoin payments through my website. So if you have a few BTC burning a hole in your pocket, you can get one by clicking on the image below. It’s an excellent conversation starter.

Now here are some highlights from Bitpay’s press release:

ATLANTA — September 16, 2013 — BitPay Inc, the world leader in business solutions for virtual currencies, announces it has over 10,000 approved merchants in 164 countries using its service to accept bitcoin payments. This milestone was reached almost exactly one year after the company approved its 1,000th merchant.

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The Million Mask March…Coming November 5, 2013

September 15, 2013 by Michael Krieger

I first read about the Million Mask March about a month ago and thought it was something to keep an eye on, but not yet interesting enough to post on. With a month and a half left to go, it has been gaining enough momentum for me to highlight this event. While the main focus … Read more

Hackers For Government Hire: A Growing and Deeply Disturbing Industry

September 16, 2013September 14, 2013 by Michael Krieger

Wikileaks recently continued the release of what they refer to as the “Spy Files.” These files provide a look into some of the companies behind the rapid commercialization of the spy equipment industry, who’s clients include repressive governments and dictatorial regimes around the world. In a press release announcing these files Wikileaks states: Across the … Read more

Military Times Survey: 75% of Troops Oppose Strikes on Syria

September 13, 2013 by Michael Krieger

It’s always a good sign for an empire’s fortunes when the commander in chief of the armed forces completely loses the confidence and trust of the troops. While we have all seen various polls demonstrating the general public’s complete opposition to unprovoked military aggression against Syria, I hadn’t seen a survey focused on military members until now. The results are not good for the establishment. From the Military Times:

To the list of skeptics who question the need for air strikes against Syria, add an another unlikely group — many U.S. troops.

“I haven’t heard one single person be supportive of it,” said an Army staff sergeant at Fort Hood who asked not to be identified by name.

A Military Times survey of more than 750 active-duty troops this week found service members oppose military action in Syria by a margin of about three to one.

The survey conducted online Monday and Tuesday found that about 75 percent of troops are not in favor of air strikes in response to reports that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to kill civilians in that country.

A higher percentage of troops, about 80 percent, say they do not believe getting involved in the two-year-old civil war is in the U.S. national interest.

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Harry Reid on the Senate Floor Proclaims: “The Anarchists Have Taken Over”

September 12, 2013 by Michael Krieger

We’re diverted totally from what this bill is about. Why? Because the anarchists have taken over. They’ve taken over the House and now they’ve taken over the Senate. People who don’t believe in government — and that’s what the Tea Party is all about — are winning, and that’s a shame. – Harry Reid on … Read more

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